Helping Christians Grow Stronger in Christ

Follow the Right Jesus

I was listening to David Jeremiah on the radio the other day. Pastor Jeremiah shared how he was speaking to a Christian audience on things our Lord doesn’t want us to participate in. One of the issues he talked about was pre-marital sex. As believers we must be not different but distinctively different from unbelievers. One man spoke with him and said, “I can’t follow a God who would speak against the joys of sex.” I need to mention again that he was speaking to Christians in a Christian setting. The man stated he believes in God but not what God says. Yes, quite confusing. Pastor Jeremiah went on to say some people form their own beliefs about God to fit their own desires. In other words, they follow the portions of Scripture they like, not the entire Holy Writ. So God will fit neatly into their beliefs instead of them changing their lives to His image. I encourage all of us to take time to see if God is forming our beliefs or are our beliefs forming our image of God.

Recent surveys indicate the church faces the unfortunate reality her non-attending members often represent her. A total of 28 percent of the U.S. adult population said they had not attended church in the past six months. In 2010, Helen T. Gray wrote an article about two people who left the church for 10 and eight years, respectively. Both of these individuals considered themselves Christians, even during those years away from church. They exemplify what the Barna Group (a leading research company) found through a recent survey: that three out of five U.S. adults (60 percent) who don’t attend church are self-described Christians. In short, people who are “on the sidelines” are speaking for Christianity.[1] Obviously there’s more to this but I just wanted to highlight this issue. Several other surveys speak to the number Christians not reading or studying the bible. But that is a discussion for another blog post.

It’s simple. Either you follow Jesus or you don’t. We learned in John 14:16 that Jesus is theonlyway. Our lifestyle, not lip service, must be aligned with His. Jesus encourages us to “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it” (Matt 7:13). Jesus also said, “He who is not with me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters” (Luke 11:23). Follow Him, not anyone else.

I imagine you already know Jesus, our Lord and Savior, isn’t the only Jesus mentioned in the bible. Jesus, called Justus (Col 4:11), was probably a great man. In fact he helped encouraged the Apostle Paul. Talk about being in great company. But if you follow that Jesus, you’re following the wrong one. Apparently, this Jesus knew The Jesus to follow. We won’t go wrong if we follow Him and what He tells us to do. If we follow our made up version of Jesus…we’ll fail. Follow the right Jesus.

Yves

[1] This is an excerpt from There Is No Gray In Moral Failure, pg 15, 16. http://ow.ly/wxM2I